Friday 2 January 2009

Moses would punish Israel

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are proof that Zionists are not true followers of Moses. In a Thursday interview in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan, President Ahmadinejad said Israeli echelons pretend to be the followers of Prophet Moses but have proved with their violent attacks on Gaza that they have no moral values.

"These minority of criminals and thieves are liars because they represent themselves as followers of the prophet. If Moses had been present today, he would first punish the Zionists for their conduct which is even worse than that of the Pharaoh," he said.

Israeli began air operations against the Gaza Strip -- home to 1.5 million Palestinians -- on Saturday. The Israeli attacks have so far lead to the death of some 417 Palestinians and the injury of over 2000.

Israel says through its military campaign, it seeks to topple the Hamas movement, which took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after winning the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections in January 2006.

In retaliation to the attacks on Gaza, Hamas has been launching rocket strikes against Israel. Unlike the state-of-the-art weapons and ammunition Israel holds, the homemade Qassam rockets rarely cause casualties.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, at least 25 percent of the Gazans killed in the Israeli onslaught are civilians -- scores of whom are women and children.

Referring to the siege on Gaza, Ahmadinejad said Zionists have attempted to impose "barbarism" on the world with its bombing and rocket attacks, warning that such conduct will never be accepted by the people of the world.

Despite international calls for Israel to end its current military offensive into Gaza, which started on Saturday, Israel is reportedly preparing to launch a ground assault into the region.

The UN Security Council has also failed to force an end to the Israeli attacks due to US intervention and its use of veto powers against resolutions that require Tel Aviv to end the ongoing raids against the Gaza Strip.

The recent conflict is the latest of a series which started when world powers found a 'land without a people and a people without a land' in 1948 and created Israel.

President Ahmadinejad is an outspoken critic of Israeli crimes. For his condemnation of Zionist policies, the Iranian president has been regularly targeted by Western governments. He has been accused of having plans to wipe Israel "off the map."

In a September interview with CNN's Larry King Live, Ahmadinejad explained his stance on the issue, saying that he believes the Israeli regime would disappear in the same way as apartheid South Africa and the Soviet Union.

The Iranian president did, however, warn on Tuesday that the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip would be the harbinger of major developments in the region.

Israel says truce would legitimize Hamas

Israel claims that declaring a truce in the wake of its weeklong incursion into the Gaza Strip would stack the odds in favor of Hamas.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Thursday that agreeing to a French-proposed cease-fire in the Gaza Strip would give Hamas legitimacy and time to retaliate.

She said that the Israeli saturation bombing of the Palestinian territory is mainly aimed at weakening Hamas and "changing the reality" in the region.

"I think that even now, after a few days of operation we have achieved changes," she said, adding that the offensive on Gaza will continue until Israel no longer deems the resistance movement a threat.

Israeli air strikes rocked the Gaza Strip for a seventh straight day on Friday. The air attacks have so far left 430 Palestinians dead and more than 2250 wounded -- many of whom are women and children.

Tel Aviv says the attacks are aimed at stopping rocket attacks on Israeli communities. Hamas began launching rocket attacks against Israel in the wake of Tel Aviv violating a six-month ceasefire with the Palestinian movement.

Israeli warplanes reportedly bombed the house of Imad Aqil, a senior Hamas member, in a new wave of air raids on the besieged sliver on Friday.

On Thursday, Hamas official Nizar Rayan and 18 members of his family were killed after an Israeli F-16 fired two missiles at his house in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip where the powerful explosion leveled the five-story apartment building.

Israel also bombed a mosque in the same region on Friday -- the eighth mosque torn down by Israeli fighter jets over the past seven days -- giving rise to protests across the Muslim world.

Israel has rejected world appeals for an emergency forty-eight-hour ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the impoverished strip.

"There is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce," said Livni, adding that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is "completely as it should be".

US worried by 'very bad daily life' in Gaza

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the Gaza situation is worrisome, as Israeli strikes on the strip continue for a seventh day.

"Obviously, the United States is very concerned about the situation there and is working very hard with our partners around the world," Condoleezza Rice told reporters Friday in a short statement outside the White House.

She, however, said she has no plans to travel to the Middle East to deal with the Gaza crisis. "I have no plans to go at this point."

At least 430 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli strikes on Gaza, which started on Saturday. Some 2,250 others are reported wounded.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas-linked compounds in the region to stop Hamas' retaliatory rocket attacks. Meanwhile, the UN says that at least 25 percent of the victims are civilians.

Rice claimed the Palestinian Hamas movement is responsible for provoking the ongoing bombardments of Gaza, adding that the group is holding the people of Gaza "hostage".

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since Hamas took control of the area in mid-June 2007 -- and after it won the majority vote in the 2006 Palestinian election.

She said Palestinians living in Gaza have had "a very bad daily life" as a result of Hamas action in the coastal sliver.

Rice pledged to continue to work to reach a "durable and sustainable" cease-fire in Gaza; however, she warned that a ceasefire that would not allow "a re-establishment of the status quo ante" in the region.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Hamas is ready to stop its rocket attacks if Tel Aviv agrees to lift the 18-month blockade of Gaza.

In the meantime, Hamas has continued its retaliatory attacks on Israel, killing at least 6 Israelis and wounding some 16 others.

On Wednesday, Israel's security cabinet rejected an international proposal for a 48-hour truce to allow humanitarian aid to enter the beleaguered strip.

As the death toll continues to rise in Gaza, Israeli tanks and troops massed along the Gaza border are reportedly preparing for a ground incursion into the coastal sliver.

Israel fears Hamas strike on Dimona nukes

Hamas retaliatory attacks have alarmed Israel with officials anticipating that the Dimona nuclear complex might become the next target.

Tel Aviv has shunned international calls for an immediate halt to its military campaign on the Gaza Strip, despite the Israeli military campaign against the impoverished sliver having left at least 436 Palestinians dead and some 2,250 others wounded.

Some Israeli officials say the aim of the operation is to stop rocket attacks launched from the strip, while some have claimed Tel Aviv has launched the attacks to "topple Hamas".

In retaliation to the raids on Gaza, Hamas has launched at least 280 rockets into Israel, hitting targets 25 miles (40 kilometers) into the occupied lands.

Israeli officials were quoted by the Times Online as saying on Friday that Hamas may have acquired longer range rockets, which would enable the group to target the sole Israeli nuclear plant in Dimona.

Israel, according to former US president Jimmy Carter, is the owner of the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East. Dimona is believed to be housing the Israeli nuclear warheads.

As the death toll continues to rise in Gaza, Israeli tanks and troops have massed along the Gaza border and are reportedly preparing for a full-scale ground incursion into the impoverished area -- home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since Hamas took control of the area in mid-June 2007, after winning the majority vote in the 2006 Palestinian election.

UN blasts Israel for 'appalling' Gaza situation

The United Nations has disputed assertions in Tel Aviv that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza despite weeklong Israeli raids.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) said Friday that unrelenting Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip have triggered destitution and a serious food crisis among the 1.5 million residents of the Palestinian territory.

"The current situation in Gaza is appalling, and many basic food items are no longer available on the market," the World Food Program representative in Gaza, Christine van Nieuwenhuyse, said in a statement.

This comes as Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni rejected French appeals for an emergency forty-eight-hour ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into the region.

"There is no humanitarian crisis in the Strip, and therefore there is no need for a humanitarian truce," said Livni, adding that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is "completely as it should be".

Nieuwenhuyse responded that she was "furious" by Livni's claims, asserting that WPF stocks in Gaza clearly show a 30 percent deficit of dry goods such as flour and a much greater shortfall of 'ready-to-eat' goods -- which are urgently needed due to the acute shortage of power and gas for cooking.

Israeli air strikes rocked the Gaza Strip for a seventh straight day on Friday. The air attacks have so far left 436 Palestinians dead and more than 2250 wounded -- many of whom are women and children.

The Daily Telegraph reported Thursday that Gazans are currently living in unheated, unlit buildings through fear of being hit by flying shrapnel while others venture out to pick through rubbish scraps to find something to burn as fuel for cooking and heating.

Water is also unavailable to hundreds of thousands of people and there is a very real threat of a health crisis caused by the total collapse of the old and overwhelmed sewage system in Gaza.

Israel's bombing of tunnels, meanwhile, has cut regular diesel and fuel supplies -- which are needed to run backup generators at hospitals, water pumps and sewage pumps.

UN spokesman Chris Gunness has also condemned Israel for attempting to distort the reality about the abysmal humanitarian situation in Gaza.

"When you look at the Israeli assertions about the humanitarian situation, it is very hard to square this with the extraordinarily dire situation on the ground in Gaza,'' he said.

"Any claims about human need at this stage need to be grounded in reality,'' he added.

Stars call for end to Gaza attacks

Singer Annie Lennox and former model Bianca Jagger joined human rights campaigners to call on American president elect Barack Obama to speak up against the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and the comedian Alexei Sayle also added their support to the campaign to end the violence.

Speaking at a press conference in central London, Ms Jagger said: "I would like to make an appeal to president elect Obama to speak up."

She added: "People throughout the world were hopeful when he was elected and we must appeal to him to ask for the immediate cessation of the bombardment of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip."

The press conference was called ahead of a demonstration on Saturday that is expected to see thousands of people rally along the Embankment in London before marching to Trafalgar Square to demand an immediate end to the Israeli attacks.

Annie Lennox spoke of her shock at watching scenes of the bombing on television.

She said: "A few days after Christmas I came downstairs, put the television on, and saw smoke pyres coming from buildings and I was shocked to the core because I was thinking as a mother and as a human being. How was this going to be the solution to peace?"

Comedian Alexei Sayle said he was speaking out because it was important for Jewish voices to be heard.

He said: "I want to feel proud of Israel, I want to be proud of my people but I am ashamed."

Also present at the press conference were the writer Tariq Ali, Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather, Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn and Respect MP George Galloway.

Israel Raid Kills 3 Children in Gaza; Toll Reaches 430

Israeli occupation army escalated Friday its massive aggression against the Gaza Strip as the death toll in the seven-day blitz reached at least 430 after three brothers aged seven to ten were killed in an Israeli raid on southern Gaza. The boys were identified as Abdelsattar, Mohamad and Ayad Al-Astal and according to witnesses, the three brothers were playing outside their home when an Israeli missle directly targeted them and rendered one of them into pieces.

Earlier, four Palestinians, including two children, joined the procession of martyrs in more Israeli raids on the Strip. The injured have exceeded 2280 persons.

Israeli daily Haaretz said that the Israeli Air Force attacked 20 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early. Before dawn, Israeli aircrafts hit 15 houses belonging to Hamas members. Twelve people were hurt in the attacks, hospital officials said.

IAF aircraft late Thursday struck a mosque in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, the seventh targeted so far since last Saturday. The strikes also hit the parliament and justice ministry.

Earlier Thursday, an Israeli aircraft assassinated a high-ranking Hamas official, Nizar Rayyan, in Gaza along with 14 members of his family, including at least 10 children, in the first major assassination since the occupation army launched “Operation Cast Lead”. An Israeli occupation army Spokesman claimed that Rayyan's house had served as a “weapons silo” and a war operations room for Hamas.

Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said Israel would regret its attacks. While they "are intended to break our will, they won't," he said on television. "This cowardly enemy must realize that he will regret these crimes against our people."

According to sources from the Israeli defense establishment, decision-makers are increasingly inclined to order a ground invasion into Gaza. Israeli tanks and troops massed for a ground offensive and no ceasefire was in sight. The army occupation army said it’s all-set for a rapid deployment in the area as soon as the order is given. The military leadership is recommending a major, but relatively short-term, ground offensive against the Gaza Strip. Speaking in Beersheva, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel is "not interested in conducting a long war" but insisted "we will deal with Hamas and terror with an iron fist."

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni rejected calls for a 48-hour "humanitarian pause" and told her French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, that Hamas must not be given the opportunity to gain any sort of legitimacy in the framework of a renewal of truce. Under the current offensive, she said, Hamas understands that Israel will not tolerate Gaza rocket fire without response.

World in Solidarity with Gaza on “Day of Wrath”

Demonstrations and rallies across the Arab and Islamic world kicked off in support of Gaza as Palestinians in the West Bank and the Strip have responded to Hamas’ call to mark “Day of Wrath” after Friday prayers.

Al-Manar correspondent in the West Bank said that Israeli occupation security forces have erected several roadblocks around the Aqsa mosque to prevent Palestinians from reaching Quds.

In territories occupied in 1948, the Palestinian follow up committee has announced a week of demonstrations, rallies and sit-ins in towns and villages including Tel Aviv and Haifa, while a central demonstration will take place in Sikhnin. The Israeli occupation army has ordered all entrances to the West Bank be closed as security forces were on very high alert across occupied Palestine in case of war, according to an Israeli police spokesman.

However, thousands of Palestinians were demonstrating in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "We will sacrifice our soul and our blood for Gaza," chanted the demonstrators, shouting out pro-Hamas slogans and calling on the resistance fighters to "hit Tel-Aviv."

Thousands of Gazans also defied the cold weather and Israel’s savage aggression and took to the streets of the bombarded city in a show of steadfastness and challenge to the Israeli killing machine. The demonstrators took part in the funeral of Hamas field commander martyr Nizar Rayan, who was assassinated Thursday.

Hundreds of prayers inside and outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus staged a sit-in Friday after performing the Friday prayer in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza and in condemnation of the Israeli brutal aggression on the Strip. The demonstrators expressed strong denunciation of the war of extermination waged by the Israeli occupation forces against the besieged defenseless population of Gaza Strip. They chanted slogans against the aggression, calling on the international community to take responsibly in stopping the aggression. The protestors called for cutting off all forms of relations with Israel, boosting up the Palestinian national unity through inter-dialogue among all the factions.


And in Tehran, a huge demonstration was organized after Friday prayers to protest Israel’s bloody aggression on Palestinians in Gaza. “Death to Israel, death to the US” they chanted and demanded an immediate halt to the Israeli war on Gaza. “We are calling for an immediate ceasefire, a halt to the attack and aid for the population of Gaza as well as an end to the blockade of the Palestinian territory and the opening up of all crossings,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Manucheher Mottaki said as he slammed the world’s inaction on Gaza. He added that Gazans were justified in their belief that some Arab countries have betrayed them.

Also in Turkey, thousands of people demonstrated and burnt Israeli flags. A senior official from Turkey's ruling party meanwhile condemned the operation as "a crime against humanity" and said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "deserved a pair of shoes to be thrown at him."

In Ankara, a deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party harshly criticized the Israeli operation in Gaza. The offensive "has reached the scale of a crime against humanity," Bulent Gedikli told Anatolia news agency, slamming the Zionist entity also for failing to facilitate the access of humanitarian aid for the Palestinians.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, thousands took to the streets of Kabul and Herat to protest against Israel's strikes on Gaza, chanting anti-Israel slogans. The demonstrators burned an effigy of Israeli President Shimon Peres. The protesters also chanted anti-US slogans and the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai.

And in Pakistan, thousands of demonstrators rallied in several cities, with some calling for a jihad, or holy war, against the Zionist entity. "The Islamic world failed to take timely action to stop Israeli action on Gaza," one of the leaders of the radical Jamaat-i-Islami party, Liaqat Baloch, told the demonstrators. He blasted the United Nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and human rights groups for failing to prevent the "massacre of Palestinians" and called for UN sanctions against Israel.

Indonesians in Jakarta also demonstrated against the Israeli blitz on Gaza. Tens of thousands of Indonesians staged a protest after Friday prayers and marched towards the US embassy while chanting religious and anti-Israel-US slogans.

In Australia, thousands of people staged a protest after Friday prayers in Sydney. Holding Palestinian flags and pro-Palestinian banners, more than 4,000 demonstrators marched to the Parry Park and held prayers for the martyrs of Gaza. A makeshift coffin draped in the Palestinian flag was carried before the crowd, followed by a procession of eight imams.

In Manila, Muslims took to the streets of the Philippines capital and denounced Israel’s aerial and naval assault on the Gaza Strip. Protesters held placards accusing Israel of “war crimes.” The protest leader stressed “we are here with the rest of the world to express our outrage against the genocidal attack by Israel against the Palestinian people.”

Also in Srinagar in Kashmir, thousands demonstrated in the main town square shouting anti-Israel slogans and carrying Islamic flags. They also set an Israeli flag on fire.

Arab Impotence Empowers Israel's Gaza Genocide

To Arabs: Fire Your Corrupt Dictators
To Americans: Reclaim Our Nation From Israel's Grasp
To Bush and Obama: Happy New Year, Enjoy Your Vacations as Gaza Bleeds

January 1, 2009
Mohamed Khodr


GAZA'S BLOODY NEW YEAR:


Palestinian children from the Balosha family, who were all killed in the same Israeli missile strike, are seen in the morgue before their burial at Kamal Edwan hopsital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Eyad Baba)

–Day 6 of Israel's American supported Genocide: 412 Dead, more than 2000 Injured
–United Nations: At least 25% of dead are civilians, mostly women and children
– According to U.N. Officials in Gaza: 1.5 million residents are facing an "alarming" humanitarian situation under constant Israeli bombardment, with the main power plant shut down, overcrowded hospitals struggling to cope and very limited food supplies.
–Israel Rejects French Call for 48 hour Truce to allow in humanitarian aid

While the world enjoyed its New Year's Eve celebrations with alcohol, cheers, hugs, kisses and fireworks that lit the sky, Gaza celebrated the occasion with its own blood spilling fireworks courtesy of the Israeli Air Force, Navy, and tanks filling the sky with lights, the land with fire, and the morgues with the bodies of mothers, infants, children, and the elderly.

Given that this genocide in Gaza has been planned during the last six months it's obvious that this was coordinated and approved by Bush, akin to the genocide in Lebanon in 2006. Bush then proclaimed the standard AIPAC provided mantra that Israel has the "right to defend itself" and last week said the same during Israel's open ended genocide against Gaza's civilians. Bush deliberately went on vacation during this genocide to avoid any dyslexic comment that might infuriate AIPAC and its Occupied Knesset, the U.S. Congress.

President Elect Obama has been receiving intelligence from the Bush administration since his election in early November, thus he's definitely aware of Israel's planned devastation on Gaza and must have given his approval as well. He also went on vacation to avoid any comment on bloodied Gaza and thus avoid any backlash from the Jews who paid and those who led his campaign as well as those who now occupy his administration. While he hits American golf balls Israel hits Gaza with American weapons. Obama, the "change" coward has shown his true colors even prior to assuming the Presidency. For all American politicians at all levels of government there is no reward for speaking against Israel and all hell to pay for publicly opposing its agendas.

America owns the Arab regimes thus Israel has complete power over the occupied Palestinians both due to its commission of influence upon America's subservient government and the omission of any courageous opposition by the Arab American regimes despite the enormous wealth of oil and gas they possess.

Such is the embarrassment of riches of the Arab regimes, 23 nations with over 300 million people, politically castrated, economically corrupt, and morally bankrupt. The word "Arab" in Arab regimes has become a four letter word around the world.

For over sixty years the Arab regimes and their "Arab League" of eunuchs, chambermaids to America's interests, have not accomplished one single act that brings honor, dignity, or any executable action to protect the life of one single Arab. On the contrary these regimes are responsible for more Arab deaths, injuries, torture, and disappearance of citizens than the Apartheid racist regime of Israel. They've fought each other over the decades spilling more precious Arab Muslim blood than Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine since 1967.

They met in 2006 over Israel's genocide in Lebanon blaming Hezbollah for provoking Israel's bombing madness of Lebanese civilians and the nation's infrastructure. At least then an Arab League Summit was held, despite the absence of some of these doormats, issuing the patented talking points that are on file since 1948.

On Gaza's genocide the Arab regimes barely sent their Foreign Ministers to meet in Cairo. The usual division between the Pro American doormats and regimes that wanted a stronger actable outcome to stop the genocide against Gaza, lift Israel's deadly blockade, and open the Egyptian Rafah border to allow humanitarian aid to the starving bleeding Palestinians was apparent.

Result: The usual condemnations. The usual formation of a "committee" to go to the United Nations Security Council to work toward a resolution that condemns Israel's military onslaught KNOWING full well and in advance that they will fail given America's veto power. Yet they proceed on these hollow steps because they're incapable of anything else, they can't afford to stand up to Israel's America, and must appear to do something to pacify their angry masses.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, the mother of the Arab world, to his eternal damnation even refused to open the Rafah crossing to allow immediate life saving aid to the children of Palestine.

Even the simplest of all actions such as recalling Arab Ambassadors from Israel, or a temporary halt of supplying oil and gas to Israel, or a temporary ban of flights between Arab capitols and Israel, or the denial of entry visas to Israeli tourists, or….or….; not one of these actions was contemplated much less implemented by Arab regimes that have diplomatic relations with Israel such as Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, or trade relations with Gulf nations such as Qatar. The Arab League Boycott was eliminated at the behest of Saudi Arabia (precondition to joining the World Trade Organization) and Gulf nations. Nine other non-Arab Muslim nations have relations with Israel.

But by this shameful inaction the Arab League did succeed in postponing if not cancelling altogether the alleged "Arab Summit" of the treacherous traitors to Islam and the Arab masses. Even if they met not one single Arab expects anything out of these recurrent summits that have become a laughing stock in the Arab world and abroad.

While Israeli Rabbis proclaim:

"The nation of Israel is pure and the Arabs are a nation of donkeys. They are an evil disaster, an evil devil, and a nasty affliction. The Arabs are donkeys and beasts. They want to take our girls. They are endowed with true filthiness. There is pure and there is impure and they are impure."
–Rabbi David Batzri, head of the Magen David Yeshiva in Jerusalem [Haaretz, March 21, 2006]

And:

"One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail."
–Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994 [N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1]

Could this be true of the Arabs?

But wait dear Arabs, have no fear, the "Arab League" is here. It proclaims loudly:

"One million Palestinians are not worth an American fingernail".
–Arab League of 23 Nations, January 1, 2009, according to Mohamed Khodr

Despite mass protests across most of the Arab world (except in Saudi Arabia, it's not permitted to disturb the Royal Arab American family) against the regimes and in support of the Palestinians, these Arab pygmies fear Israel and America more then they fear their own people.

So I tell my Arab brethren across the Arab world, if you have one atom left of dignity and honor, if you have one atom of anger and frustration, if you feel one atom of embarrassment and shame toward these eunuch leaders, if you love Allah (swt), if you are Prophet's Muhammad's followers, then raise your voices and arms and FIRE these leaders from the chairs and loot they occupy and steal.

Begin with removing these American doormats who occupy your lives, lands, and resources for the sake of America. Return to Islam and do not believe the pseudo-intellectuals in the Arab world who parrot the lie that Islam is the reason for your lack of progress. Reclaim your dignity and honor and with such you will free Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and any Muslim nation subjugated by foreign interests. Arabs and Muslims seek peace with the world but only if they are truly free, independent, and respected by the world.

With God on our side we shall fear no one and He will bring us the promised victory. "Remember Me, and I shall Remember You"

Give victory to the cause of Allah (swt) and He shall make you victorious.

"O you who have attained to faith! If you help the cause of God, He will help you, and will make firm your step." (Qur'an: 47:7)

Palestine will be free when both the Arabs and Americans are free from the shackles and stranglehold Israel and its powerful lobby maintain on America's foreign policy.

Americans only need to observe the most shameful spectacle of American politicians from the White House to Congress, to the Supreme Court, the media, Hollywood, and academia boisterously and gladly proclaiming their love, allegiance, and support of Israel at the annual APAC conference with words never spoken in allegiance to America, the flag, or America's suffering citizens.

No official or candidate who's running for office can avoid the requisite pilgrimage to Israel and the butt licking speech to AIPAC.

Here's just one example of a speech delivered by then Presidential Candidate Al Gore to AIPAC's annual conference on May 18, 2000.

The United States has an absolute, uncompromising commitment to Israel's security and an absolute conviction that Israel alone must decide the steps necessary to ensure that security. That is Israel's prerogative. We accept that. We endorse that. Whatever Israel decides cannot, will not, will never, not ever, alter our fundamental commitment to her security."

The archives on AIPAC's website of such political speeches by Presidents, Senators, Congressmen and candidates are replete with the same love fest of allegiance to Israel, a fact that has prompted some to state that we should change the part of the allegiance to the American flag from "one nation under God", to, "one nation under Israel."

Just as the Arabs must reclaim their governments so must Americans demand and protest in mass numbers in Washington D.C. and across our nation to reclaim our government from Israel's tentacles. Obama was put in office by the passion and energy of a majority of Americans, especially the young, and thus he must listen to our voices and declare our second independence, this time from Israel.

If we remain silent then we must endure in silence terrorism against us and our foreign interests and accept our complicity whenever our money and weapons allow Israel's "reign of terror" to continue against the hapless occupied Palestinians.

I strongly believe we as Americans can easily muster one million Americans to protest in Washington D.C. soon after Obama assumes the Presidency to reclaim our nation from domestic and foreign special interests, the very groups Obama and every other politician rail against only to be ensnared by these lobbies once they arrive in our capitol

I am at a loss to explain the silence of Arab and Muslim Americans as Gaza bleeds but then again we too have abandoned our faith for the almighty dollar.

May God forgive our silence, impotence and ineptitude as Arabs and Muslims and may He bless the Palestinians with His mercy, patience, guidance, and strength as they endure the genocide committed by one of the most powerful American equipped armies in the world.

May the world find its courage and voice to reject Israel's hegemony, militarism, and defiance of all human laws and morals and impose a peace that will deflate the worldwide tension created by the creation of this Nazi like State. Not even the Nazis killed Jews with aircraft bombs, naval missiles or tank shells.

Amen.

"There is no more Palestine. Finished"
–Moshe Dayan, former Israeli Defense Minister, TIME Magazine (July 30, 1973)

Action Alert: Twenty-Six Things to Help Gaza



So far hundreds of civilians have been killed in Gaza. Five sisters in one family, four other children in another home, two children on a cart drawn by a donkey. Universities, colleges, police stations, roads, apartment buildings were all targeted. The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian areas issued a statement that "The Israeli air-strikes on the Gaza Strip represent severe and massive violations of international humanitarian law as defined in the Geneva Conventions, both in regard to the obligations of an Occupying Power and in the requirements of the laws of war."

Twenty-five things to do to bring peace with justice:

(1) First get the facts and then disseminate them. Here are some basic background information:
http://tinyurl.com/8ppsec
http://tinyurl.com/6dok4l
http://tinyurl.com/7budqp

The true story behind this war:
http://tinyurl.com/9624zp
http://tinyurl.com/785dzt

If Gaza Falls:
http://tinyurl.com/a53ujd

Gaza massacres must spur us to action:
http://tinyurl.com/8dfxee

(2) Contact local media. Write letters to editors (usually 100-150 words) and longer op-eds (usually 600-800 words) for local newspapers. But also write to news departments in both print, audio, and visual media about their coverage. In the US http://tinyurl.com/2jxwf You can find media listings in your country using search engines like google.

(3) Contact elected and other political leaders in your country to urge them to apply pressure to end the attacks. In the US, Contact the State Department at 202.647.5291, the White House 202-456-1111 the Egyptian Embassy 202.895.5400, Email (embassy@egyptembassy.net) and the Obama Transition Team 202-540-3000 (then press 2 to speak with a staff member).

(4) Organize and join demonstrations in front of Israeli and Egyptian embassies or when not doable in front of your parliament, office of elected officials, and any other visible place (and do media work for it).

(5) Hold a teach-in, seminar, public dialogue, documentary film viewing etc. this is straightforward: you need to decide venue, nature, if any speakers, and do some publicity (the internet helps).

(6) Pass out fliers with facts and figures about Palestine and Gaza in your community (make sure also to mention its relevance to the audience: e.g, US taxpayers paying for the carnage, increase in world instability and economic uncertainty).

(7) Put a Palestinian flag at your window.

(8) Wear a Palestinian head scarf (Koufiya)

(9) Wear Black arm bands (this helps start conversations with people).

(10) Send direct aid to Gaza through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). http://www.un.org/unrwa/

(11) Initiate boycotts, divestments and sanctions at all levels and including asking leaders to expel the Israeli ambassadors (an ambassador of an apartheid and rogue state). See Palestinian call http://tinyurl.com/94aafw

(12) Work towards bringing Israeli leaders before war crime courts (actions along those lines in courts have stopped Israeli leaders from traveling abroad to some countries like Britain where they may face charges).

(13) Calling upon all Israelis to demonstrate in front of their war ministry and to more directly challenge their government

(14) Do outreach: to neighbours and friends directly. Via Internet to a lot of others (you can join and post information to various listservs/groups).

(15) Start your own activist group or join other local groups (simple search in your city with the word Palestine could identify candidate groups that have previously worked on issues of Palestine). Many have also been successful in at bringing coalitions from different constituencies in their local areas to work together (human rights group, social and civil activists, religious activists, etc).

(16) Develop a campaign of sit-ins at government offices or other places where decision makers aggregate.

(17) Do a group fast for peace one day and hold it in a public place.

(18) Visit Palestine (e.g. with http://www.sirajcenter.org)

(19) Support human rights and other groups working on the ground in Palestine.

(20) Make large signs and display them at street corners and where ever people congregate.

(21) Contact local churches, mosques, synagogues, and other houses of worship and ask them to take a moral stand and act. Call on your mosque to dedicate this Friday for Gaza actions.

(22) Sign petitions for Gaza, e.g. http://tinyurl.com/8nt5on

(23) Write and call people in Gaza, they need to hear from the outside world.

(24) Work with other groups that do not share your political views (factionalism and excessive divisions within activist communities allowed those who advocate war to succeed).

(25) Dedicate a certain time for activism for peace every day (1 hour) and think of more actions than what are listed above.

(26) Urge your local radio talk shows and news editors to call any of us here in Palestine to report live what is happening on the ground.

For support and contacts of people in Gaza or to volunteer, please contact the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People, via gaza@imemc.org, or call +1-989-607-9480 (from the US and Canada) or +972-2-277-2018 (from other places).

Please feel free to suggest more actions to save Gaza.

The Donkey Who Scared the Israeli Army

Kawther Salam

The weakest and most coward army in the world, which considers itself as the strongest one targeted and bombed a donkey on the streets of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The cowards of the Israeli Air forces fired a missile at the donkey which was pulling a cart while Lama and Haya Hamdan, two sister aged 4 and 11, were searching for some food for their impoverished family.

Haya and Lama at the Al-shifa's hospital cooler.

The poor "terrorist" donkey scared the Israeli soldier who was watching him from outside Gaza, using war equipment received from the "friendly" USA. The great scare of the "innocent" Israeli army obliged them to protect, to defend themselves and their criminal state from the big horror of a "terrorist" donkey, probably from "Hamas". So they in the air force to drop an intelligent GBU-39 bomb at the donkey cart, immediately killing not only the donkey, but also Lama and Haya, the two young sisters.

In this was another small new catastrophe was added to the current horrors, leaving another poor family of two young girls without bread. The eyewitnesses of this tragic crime said the body and the blood of the donkey was splattered all around the place, mixed with small pieces of the young girls bodies. It was not possible to identify which parts belonged to the donkey, and which parts belonged to the innocent girls.

The murder of Lama, Haya and their donkey one day after the murder of the five daughters of Anwar Khalil Ba’losha from the Jabalia refugee camp, Jawaher, aged 4, Donia, aged 8, Samar, aged 12, Ikram, aged 14, and Tahrir, aged 17, shows the deteriorated level of the well paid and manipulated western and international media. These two incidents and other similar ones were not reported, but CNN, BBC, Al-Arabia TV, Euronews and the Egyptian and Saudi news, which falsify the facts and are only reporting "Hamas, Hamas, Hamas", and they swear to god that the Israeli army is targeting the fighters of the "great army" of Hamas in Gaza.

I say to the manipulated media, which is paid and owned by the Zionist lobby and it’s allies, that you all involved in the murder of the Lama and Haya and all the innocent people of Gaza, by advertising, and justifying the Israeli genocide. You have all betrayed the the right of the public of your countries to know, and you have made fun of the intelligence of all human beings. You are all guilty of the war crimes in Gaza, just like the Israeli murders, as if you hat pulled the trigger yourselves. Your absolute lack of objectivity has lost you all your credibility, and we are the people who discovered your lies, we threw you out of our consideration, and together we all will find our way to make our voices heard by the majority, and this will expose you and all your lies and connivance with immoral criminals.

The criminal Israeli air force, the tanks and the military are committing war crimes and targeting the human beings, the stones, the birds, the animals and every single moving object in Gaza.

There is no military belonging to Hamas in Gaza. There are militant groups resisting against the continuous genocide of Israel against the one million and half people jailed in Gaza under conditions worse than a concentration camp. One million and a half human beings jailed and punished as a result of expressing their free will by voting in a democratic process, the election of January 2006.

The civilian population of Gaza lives a daily catastrophe, a holocaust, under full sight of the international community. A catastrophic holocaust which affects humanity and the stones. To die once, at the same time as a group is easier than living the death and mourning 24 hours a day, seeing shredded bodies, funerals and destruction every day of your life. In Gaza all the Palestinians live the daily horror of Israel, the fear, the disgrace. There are horrible stories in every house in Gaza. To die once is better than seeing the Israeli horror and the increasing number of daily murders. In Gaza, the Palestinians live the holocaust a hundred million times each day.

I heard these words from the mouth of a person from Gaza during a phone call. And I want the international community to hear these same words. During this phone call, I heard all what the media cares to cover with their lies. Continuous death and mourning, continuous funerals and destruction, continuous raids and dropping of bombs. Noise of F16s and apache helicopters day and night. All the time sirens of ambulances, devastation right and left, ruins, fire, smoke and the smell of death spread everywhere. Shocked people running in all directions, their faces showing signs of terror and pain. Others crying and screaming. Houses mourning in each street, and women dressed in black…

It is a catastrophe, a disaster bigger than my words can describe. It is a disaster and a shameful disgrace in the face of humanity, in the face of Israel and it’s barbaric history. It is a catastrophic shameful disgrace in the face of USA, the international community, and the Arab leaders.

I heard that the day before yesterday, at 11AM, two sister were murdered by the shrapnel of missile dropped in Beit Hanoun. On Sunday, F-16 jets dropped a missile at the house of Abdullah Tawfiq Kishko, located in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood east of Gaza City. The house of two floors collapsed over the head of the residents killing the Ebtihal, the daughter of Abdullah, aged 8 years, and his son’s wife Maisa, 22, and injured other 13 member of the family, among them two young children.

Yesterday an Israeli missile dropped in the Rafah refugee camp fell on the house of the Palestinian civilan Ziad Al-Absi and murdered three of his children, Sidki, aged 3, Ahmad, aged 12, Muhammad, aged 14. The children were all sleeping in their beds. Ziad and his wife and other three children were injured seriously.

Yesterday, the war criminals of the Israeli air force dropped a bomb on a truck delivering oil and murdered the driver in the northern part of Gaza.

Yesterday evening the Israeli air force bombed the UN school in al-Karara in the southern area of Gaza. The civilian guard was murdered as a result of this criminal attack, and the school was destroyed. During the last days of criminal Israeli attacks against the population of Gaza, over 65 women and dozens of children and civilians were murdered. The total number of the dead people increased each moment. While I finish writing this, 402 were killed in Gaza, and 1780+ were injured, among them hundreds of critical conditions.

Today, 31 December 2008, Al Nasir incubators of newly born babies affected by Israeli heavy bombings hit a shop of money transfer and exchange in the west north of Gaza City. A another Israeli air raid targeted money exchange shop mid of Gaza City.